Captain
Roger Hill is in danger of receiving a less than honorable discharge
from the Army and it is flat out over the top way wrong.

In
2003
I wrote a column in defense of LTC Allen West. West had been targeted
by politically correct myopics for having fired his pistol over the
head of a recalcitrant enemy combative prisoner.

As
Colonel West writes in a recent note, “Now here we are and history
is repeating itself, this time a stellar young Army Captain protecting
his Company in Afghanistan.” West got deep in the kimchi for firing
his pistol over the head of a prisoner. Hill fired his into the ground
from about 20 feet.

Captain
Hill is a West Point graduate and former ‘Old Guard’ (3d
Infantry Regiment) in Washington D.C. Hill was the Officer-in-Charge
of President Ronald Regan’s funeral detail. That is a very big
deal and a “highly respected honor.”

Apparently
the Army, in a supreme act of bureaucratic brain flatulence is reportedly
considering an “Other than Honorable” discharge for Hill.
Within four to six weeks the fate of this extraordinary officer will
be decided by lesser men at Fort Campbell. The potential negative ramifications
of hosing Hill would be epic and long range.

The
soldiers who served at Hill's side call him heroic. However his fate
will be decided by men at desks, not the men who with Hill, had to sift
through the “charred and crumbling remains of fellow service members”
or struggled to get the sticky dried blood of buddies out from under
their finger nails. Hill himself reported such experiences “can
somehow make a commander more protective."

Remember
that when only the smell of cordite masks the stench of battle carnage,
soldiers are fighting for their buddies…the troops with them wading
through the blood, the guts, and the mud. Ultimately, soldiers do not
fight for political concepts or partisan policy wonks. They fight for
the immediate imperatives that largely include self preservation and
protecting others. A leader is responsible for the “welfare, discipline
and tactical deployment of his troops”.

Over
1,200 troops from the 10th Mountain Division are now pouring into Wardak,
Afghanistan (an area about the size of Connecticut) to replace the 89
soldiers of Captain Hill’s company.

A
long list of supporters (including retired LTC Allen West) has joined
Hill’s wife, family and lawyer.

During
the West incident in 2003 I observed, that when Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan
interrogates a bad guy working with terrorists by shooting him in the
arms and legs we cheered. When an Army officer scares an enemy in a
combat zone with a loud noise they want to nail him to a wall, and brand
him “unworthy”?

The
same kind of politically correct desk jockey types who are Jonesing
to put women in combat, emasculate fighter jocks, and impose rules of
engagement for a cricket club instead of barbaric 13th century guerrillas,
now once again are apparently seeking to destroy an exceptionally effective
combat leader. What is wrong with this picture? Some senior civilian
in the Human Resource Command is or will be tasked with Captain Hill’s
fate. The HRC office works under Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and
it is being suggested you (respectfully as possible) direct any letters
or comments to Secretary Geren.

There
really are consequences to what we do and don’t do in life. That
axiom is true for institutions as well as for individuals. For a military
struggling with morale, recruiting and retention issues, to do what
they tried (and failed) to do to LTC West and now apparently are trying
to do to Capt. Hill will result in negative consequences we as a nation
cannot and should not be forced to suffer.

Woodrow
Wilson once observed, “Leadership does not always wear the harness
of compromise…Men of strenuous minds and high ideals come forward…The
attacks they sustain are more cruel than the collision of arms…Friends
desert and despise them…They stand alone and oftentimes are made
bitter by their isolation.”

Brave
warriors like the two men referenced herein, and their comrades should
never be put in myopic and fickle cross hairs of unknowing, uncaring,
politically motivated public opinion.

One
of the unintended (but positive) consequences of the wars we now fight
is the development of experienced combat veterans. If we can retain
this institutional knowledge and experience, our cadre of experienced
senior leaders (ten to fifteen years down the road) will be vastly superior
to the officer corp General Marshall inherited when we had to fight
WWII with inexperienced leaders.

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However,
if the military discriminates against hard charging, “of the troops
for the troops” type leaders (West and Hill as just two examples);
it will revert to a “do no harm” politically correct goop,
incapable of protecting their betters at the sharp end of the spear.

"Geoff Metcalf is a nationally
syndicated radio talk show host for TALK AMERICA and a veteran media performer.
He has had an eclectic professional background covering a wide spectrum
of radio, television, magazine, and newspapers. A former Green Beret and
retired Army officer he is in great demand as a speaker. Visit Geoff's